Leominster, Fitchburg fired up for big Thanksgiving Day game

High-school students from Fitchburg and Leominster got pumped up Tuesday at their pep rallies for the 107th annual Thanksgiving Day football game the rivals will play. This year, it's Thursday at 10 a.m., at Doyle Field in Leominster.

Current LHS seniors have never known defeat in the game. The school is undefeated in the last four years.

Burkhardt expects a 42-21 victory, but Khan said she wants the final score to read 40-0.

FHS senior wide receiver Berny Platel and quarterback Connor Lemieux said their team has been working hard at practice, and plans to play even harder Thursday.

At the FHS rally, the thought of "slaying the Blue Devil" was on everyone's minds.

FHS senior Bethany Bourgault showed a video she made of the football team throughout the season, as she has done all four years at FHS, as well as a parody of the movie "300" she made with other students. In the latter, senior Merrick Henry, as the Red Raider mascot, kicks "the wife of the Blue Devil," played by senior Stephanie Atteridge, off the top of Rollstone Hill while yelling, "This is Fitchburg!"

Bourgault worked with fellow seniors Thomas Hampton and Zakary LaRoche to write and shoot the video at Fitchburg Access Television studios. Several other students were involved as actors, and Bourgault did all of the editing and postproduction work.

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At the rally, Henry, again as the Red Raider, "slew" the Blue Devil, played by senior Chris Sandrelli, in a (fake) sword fight involving several seniors representing both Fitchburg and Leominster. As the end of the "battle" neared, students in the stands shouted "Finish him!," and the Red Raider complied with a few swift sword moves, "Mortal Kombat"-style.

Henry said he was honored to be elected by his fellow seniors to be the Red Raider and that it's something he has wanted to do since freshman year.

"I've always wanted to be this symbol for this high school because I love everything about Fitchburg High," he said.

Seniors took first place in the annual FHS grade-level wall-decorating contest with their "Knights of the Red Table" theme, thanks to the idea given by class Vice President Zac Cote.

"We've been second place every year since freshman year, so it's nice to finally get first place for senior year," Cote said.

Students made large, painted cardboard knights, the faces of which were pictures of all of the senior football players, and they were all around a red table about to slay the Blue Devil.

Seniors reigned supreme in the FHS tug-of-war, easily besting first the juniors and then the sophomores, moving on to face the faculty. The faculty team put up a good fight, but the seniors remained victorious.

The LHS rally later spilled into the parking lot, where students continued to dance, sing and honk car horns before the start of parent-teacher conferences.

The football players aren't the only ones competing Thursday, said Burkhardt, who is president of the LHS Student Council.

For the second year, the schools are competing to collect canned goods for charity. Leominster won last year and is looking to defend its title.

"I brought 70 cans this year," Khan said.

She donated such foods as vegetable soup, while Burkhardt opted for sloppy-joes mix and Spaghetti-Os.

FHS Principal Jeremy Roche said he couldn't reveal how many items had been collected for the drive, but called it "an amazing amount."

This was the sixth time LHS's Becky Stillman helped organize the pep rally as class co-adviser for seniors, along with Carol Robison, Center for Technical Education innovation senior-class adviser Steve McNamara and Student Director Victoria Valera.

The annual rally is planned and organized by seniors, Stillman said.

"It's kid-driven. It's their ideas," she said.

The FHS rally was organized by Student Council and staff co-advisers Deb Morand and Jinnee Strus, who said it's usually held at night, not during the school day. Many kids couldn't make it to the ones at night, either because they didn't have transportation or were working, Strus said, so the time was changed to include everybody.

An LHS pep rally staple is the reversal of roles for 12th-grade members of the cheering squad and football players.

Instead of mimicking a football game this year during the rally, they performed a dance-off.

The football players, dressed as cheerleaders, danced to Soulja Boy's "Superman," and the girls danced to Psy's "Gangnam Style," Principal Thomas Browne said.

The real LHS cheerleaders are district champions and heading to the national championships in March along with the school band, which has also qualified for national championships in Florida, Browne said.

Following a performance by FHS cheerleaders, members of the football team cheered for them, some forming a makeshift human pyramid while others did flips and cartwheels.

Students at FHS also danced to Psy's "Gangnam Style," in a flash mob started by the school's Multi-Cultural Club. Several students hit the floor wearing sunglasses, some adding cartwheels and break-dancing elements to the performance.

Pep rallies are used to invigorate the students, Browne said.

"It's a tradition," he said. "It's a big game."

At the FHS rally, Roche recognized 100 students with perfect attendance in the first quarter of school, as well as those who had made the honor roll and those who participated in last week's production of "The Canterville Ghost."

Though it is tradition for the pep rallies to primarily celebrate athletics, Roche said it's important to recognize the diverse talents and achievements of the whole student body.

Follow Alana Melanson at facebook.com/ alanasentinel or on Twitter @alanamelanson, and follow Jack Minch at facebook.com/ jack.minch.7 or on Twitter @JackMinch.

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